Many systems measure temperature. The ability to sense temperature changes in small scale systems is becoming increasingly important. Some systems allow for small scale temperature measurements. These systems, however, are often impractical for many applications because they require specialized conditions and/or impractical equipment. Similarly, many systems are impractical and/or do not operate with many technology areas.
For example, the ability to sense temperature changes in nanoscale systems is becoming increasingly important in application areas such as but not limited to microelectronics, microfluidics, nanomedicine, and other such fields. Such application areas and/or fields can benefit from accurate temperature measurements with submicron (e.g., hundreds of nanometers and in some instances tens of nanometers) resolution.
Optical based temperature measurement approaches such as thermoreflectance are diffraction limited and thus the spatial resolution is limited by the wavelength of light used in the analysis. Non-diffraction limited approaches can involve electron microscopy. For example, some systems use transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to achieve temperature mapping with submicron resolution. However, these systems are generally impractical for many applications since they require specialized conditions such as an evacuated chamber. Submicron temperature measurements may also be possible with near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM), which uses a nanoscale fiber or metallic tip. The use of NSOM analysis is relatively restricted since vacuum or cryogenic temperatures are typically necessary.